Electoral reform in Albania

02/05/2008

While feuding over most other issues, the two largest parties in Albania see eye to eye on one thing – electoral reforms that could cement their dominance.

By Klodjan Seferaj for Southeast European Times in Tirana – 02/05/08

The Democrats and the Socialists want to change the voting system. [Getty Images]

Efforts by the major political parties in Albania -- the Democrats and the Socialists -- to revamp the voting system are drawing considerable comment among bloggers in the country. The changes include establishing a regional, proportional system of voting and adopting a simple majority system instead of the current three-fifths majority one.

Although Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his opposition counterpart, Edi Rama, may agree on little else, they have found common ground on the need for such reform. Sceptics argue that this is no surprise: the two largest parties are simply seeking to protect their dominance.

"Looking at this agreement on a deeper level, I would say that it is an agreement that already existed," writes Fatos at perpjekja. "There is no use in hiding ourselves behind the finger. It has been years since these parties had any cultural, ideological or moral difference. For years, these parties have said to Albanians only that they can represent their interests better than the opposition can."

Adrinurellari charges that the planned changes are unsuitable for the country. "This reform can't find anything similar to the Albanian context. It is only a gambit by the two main political parties' leaders, who fear pluralism or fragmentation of the political spectrum and through this maneuver ensure their durable political domination in Albania," he writes. "It is ridiculous to hear the argument that because Spain (our new electoral system copies the Spanish one) is a democratic state, the Spanish system will be good for Albania."

At saktivista.blogspot.com, meanwhile, Sol Nocturnus laments what he sees as an endless transition period for the country.

"We are in transition -- we all know by now this refrain, young and old. This transition explains everything and is with us everywhere, good or bad, in our everyday life, at work, at home, at the table, during our sleep. Transition, transition, transition ... But for how much time?" he asks.

"We live the moment, and we refuse to look back in order to see what happened; we refuse to see the future and to change it. We live a period of immediacy without a past or a future. We need time to change, and the truth is that our hope remains the new generation, those children who play today without any fault, without knowing what was before they arrived into this world," Sol Nocturnus writes.